Reader's Edyn: Blitz: Blood Rogue (Blood Rogue #1) by Linda J. Parisi + GIVEAWAY

**Blood Rogue by Linda J. Parisi**

Good Morning, Everyone! So thrilled to see you all today! Today we have another new author to share with you all. Well, new to me, at least. I just love discovering new authors and their work! Please allow me to feature on the blog Linda J. Parisi and her latest release, BLOOD ROGUE … Plus, a GIVEAWAY!

**LINDA J. PARISI**

**BIO**

As a major in biochemistry with a minor in English literature, Linda has always tried to mesh her love of science with her love of the written word. A clinical research scientist by day and NJRW Golden Leaf award winning author by night, she creates unforgettable characters and puts them in untenable situations, much to their dismay. Choices always matter and love conquers all, so a happy-ever-after is a must. Linda is the current Treasurer of Liberty States Fiction Writers. She has served on the boards of other writing organizations, and loves to teach the craft of writing at worshops and conferences. She lives in New Jersey with her husband John, son Chris, daughter-in-law Sara, and Audi, a Cocker Spaniel mix who had her at woof!

To find out more about Ms. Parisi, please visit:

**BLOOD ROGUE**

Publication date: September 8^th, 2020

Publisher: City Owl Press

Series: Blood Rogue #1

Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance

**BLURB**

There is the blood and can only ever be the blood. So, how will love survive in a world of pain?

Vampire Charles Tower never knew anything sweeter than the taste of Stacy Morgan’s lips.

He never imagined anything crueler than her being marked for death by the only father he’s ever known.

Mikhail reared him. Taught him how to survive. Now he’s gone rogue and it’s up to Charles to put the man down.

But can he convince himself, and Stacy, that love between them is impossible?

That’s hard to do with a woman like her, especially when she offers herself up as bait.

Now they must fight against the centuries-old customs that bar them from being together and the rogue vampire who wants every last drop of Stacy’s blood.

If you like Richelle Mead, Ilona Andrews, or K.F. Breene, you’ll love this vampire paranormal romance!

**EXCERPT**

He dipped his head, lifted a brow, and smiled. “Let’s make this a special occasion then. Our first meeting. The Chart House?”

She shifted her pocketbook strap on her shoulder, and some of the tension in her shoulders eased. “I’ve been there. That would be lovely.”

He inclined his head but drew his brows together as if he had a problem. “I have a favor to ask. Would you mind driving? My car is in the garage of my building. We’d have to walk a ways to get it. Or Uber.”

“Sure.” She turned, and Chaz followed, admiring the view before falling into step next to her. That long stride of hers nearly matched his. “You had everyone going, you know.”

“Excuse me?”

“My friends. They’re not exactly subtle.”

He lifted his eyebrows, hoping he appeared ignorant or innocent, but she didn’t seem to buy it.

“Come on. You mean you didn’t see the drool all over the floor? Kelly tried to chain you to her.”

“That’s why I stood next to you. I’m not interested in the obvious.”

“Okay. So if I’m not obvious?” she asked, heading down another block. “What exactly am I?” She stopped next to a beat-up Jeep.

A word popped into his head, and he hated it immediately. “Intelligent. Strong. Beautiful.”

She tipped her chin, head tilted, eyes widened, and huffed. “Really?”

“Really,” he repeated. He climbed in the passenger side while she got in behind the steering wheel. As she put the key in the ignition, he covered her hand with his. Her gaze lifted, filled with confusion, anticipation, and a bit of curiosity. He leaned in and breathed in her scent, a heady mixture of expensive perfume and hormones. Her skin pebbled as he blew lightly on her cheek. Chaz heard the distinct rhythm of her heart as it hammered in her chest, which rose and fell with short rapid breaths.

His incisors grew, and he swiped a taste of her neck. Perfect.

She moaned as he bit down. God, she tasted sweet. Much more like dessert than a meal. He sucked and swallowed, sucked and swallowed, and her heart slowed, pounding in his ears to the same rhythm as the city.

Chaz.

He reared back away from her neck. Had he taken too much? Horror filled his gut. No, her flesh was still warm, pulse low and steady, eyes closed.

Thank God.

He leaned over again and bit down, but this time it was to give her the Lethe, the drug that would make her forget he ever existed. He admired her beauty one last time, then reached in her purse and found her driver’s license, committing her address to memory. Shouldn’t have done that, Charles. He climbed out of the car and placed the bag of coffee in the crook of her arm. She would wake up in about an hour or so and not remember a thing.

Damn. That sucked.

******

“Do you know why I went into forensics and not medicine, Chaz?” He shook his head. “Because I was terrified I’d end up making a mistake. I was scared to death that I would end up taking a life instead of saving one. Because, in the end, I let myself be a coward. Don’t let yourself be a coward, Chaz.”

Stacy wanted to reach out and touch him. She wanted to wrap him in her arms and never let go. She wanted to force-feed what she’d just learned—that nothing is more important than being true to the being inside. Be it vampire or human.

No one was more surprised than Chaz when Stacy threw her arms around him and planted her lips on his. But this kiss was different. The rules of the game had changed. They both knew the consequences of their actions.

It seemed a lifetime ago that Chaz sought her out. Perhaps he’d known all along they would come together at this moment, in the truest sense of what two people can call together—no pretense, no games, just truth, and reality. She realized this was why he fought so hard against her. They were from different worlds. Each of them had to accept that.

But Stacy knew the real fight, the harder fight, the one that would keep them together and not apart. Now she asked him to take that final step, to discard the past and look to the future, a future that might contain just the two of them.

He drew back, loath to let her lips part from his. “I told you once that you’d become the light in my very dark existence. I was wrong.”

“Wrong?” Her insides blanched, turning bleak, and she stiffened.

“You’ve become my very existence.”

Thank God. Her stomach settled, but he held up his hand, and her angst came back tenfold. As they stared at each other, her shoulders fell. She shook her head at him as reality—sorrow and disbelief filled her face.

“I’m sorry, but nothing has changed. We’re still from different worlds. I’m still this far from becoming that monster. There will never be an ‘us.’”

“Then you’re taking the easy way out.”

Her words cut them both to the quick. “Easy? You think standing here and telling you I can never have you is easy? Guess again.”

******

Never in his wildest dreams as a human could he have imagined such a sight.

But the visual hid what lay beneath: the strength, the determination to survive, the need to grow and create made New York City the greatest city in the world. Perhaps this was the treasure of time.

Such a marvel would never have been conceived of when he was a human being. The entire modern world would have been unfathomable. Which made him wonder, for a moment, where the years had gone. Looking back, his time on this earth had been but a blink of an eye. And yet, the years also seemed beyond endless. Depending upon which way he chose to see his existence.

But there was one fact he couldn’t deny. For all their faults, humans had indeed grown in-depth and in knowledge, which made them closer yet even more frightening than ever. Man’s thirst for knowledge had brought the human race to the point where they were this close to truly accepting the idea of vampires’ existence. Would they be able to go beyond a television series and the movies? Would they be able to accept fantasy as reality?

Remaining invisible had protected them for so long. Even Sam couldn’t deny that an absolute total disaster was possible when the shadows were removed. And yet, she was making him an offer he couldn’t refuse. She was telling him she’d protect Stacy as an equal.

The choice was his.

He leaned forward and rubbed his face with his hands. The right thing to do was guard Stacy until he killed the rogue and then make sure she remained safe. The noble thing to do was make her forget all about him—the vampire with the bloodstained hands. The decent thing to do was make sure she understood that a vampire and a man were two different entities and that she belonged with a man, not a vampire.

The easier thing to do was drive a stake through his heart and not rip the damned thing out. Then let Ozzie take his head.

God, he was so toasted. Because he still didn’t know what to do. He wanted to love her, take the opportunity Sam offered, but he also knew the day would come when he would try to drain her dry.

Would he be able to stop? Would his love for her overcome the all-encompassing need for blood?

Like Sam said, the choice was his.

******

Something was wrong. Stacy couldn’t right herself. The world kept spinning out of control.

“I’m sorry, Stacy.”

Her body still pulsed with the aftershocks of an amazing orgasm, but she couldn’t get the room to balance, she felt drunk, higher than a kite. Damn him, he’d used the thrall.

“I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for something you should never have been involved in.”

“You won’t what?” Stacy tried to lift her head. The room tilted when she did. “You bastard,” she cried, realizing what he’d done. “You…you didn’t…”

Such sadness. After such pleasure. “Not exactly.”

Stacy tried to gather her thoughts. As she did, he covered her with a sheet and rose. She’d never seen such steely determination in his face before. “You’re going after him by yourself.”

“To keep you safe.”

“That’s not your choice.”

“It is now. I drank enough of your blood so you won’t get out of this bed and try to be a hero.”

“Did you really think that was my only motivation? That I was doing this to be a hero?”

He stared down at her, his gaze unchanged. “You’ll be all right after you sleep it off. Go to sleep.”

“No, I won’t.”

She struggled to sit up and fell back onto the bed, too weak to get up. She tried again, only to have the room spin out of control.

“Why?” she asked, her thoughts a mass of contradictions.

“Because I love you.”

She watched Chaz turn on his heel and leave the room. She had to close her eyes again to get the room to stop spinning. She could hear him throwing his clothes on in the other room. Then she heard him stop in the doorway.

“I’ll never forgive you,” she said, her tone flat and her stare hard as she opened them. He was leaning against the doorjamb. He looked anything but nonchalant.

“I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you. So we’re even.”

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